Captain America and the Avengers (Arcade)
The 1990s saw a rise of gritty realism in comics, and when animated and film adaptations of Marvel superheroes started to become very popular, its influence poured back not only into the comics, but into video games adapting them as well. The arcade beat ’em up Captain American and the Avengers came out before these trends really caught on though, meaning it includes many of the bright and colorful old costumes for villains and delightfully strange concepts that came with the more whimsical earlier eras of Marvel comics. Almost a time capsule of sorts from before the Avengers and Captain America were solid fixtures in the public consciousness, seeing these older designs can be as enjoyable of a draw as the brawler gameplay.
Captain American and the Avengers comes in two cabinet orientations, one where up to two players are free to pick which hero they play as while the more common four player version has you pick your character by using the assigned joystick and buttons. Captain America is naturally one of the heroes you can play as, joined by his fellow Avengers Iron Man, Hawkeye, and the white version of the more commonly green, yellow, and red Vision. All four heroes, even the bow-wielding Hawkeye, are capable pugilists, snappy punch combos easily to line up and execute while getting in close will also let you toss enemies around and even into other foes. Your character choice will matter though when it comes to a few unique moves. Every hero can fire a projectile, be it Captain America hurling his shield, Vision and Iron Man firing a laser, or Hawkeye doing the obvious with his bow and arrow, but projectile attacks are a bit slow so you can’t just avoid the enemy and bombard them from afar. Jump attacks are probably the major differentiator truly. While everyone can do a midair melee attack, if you time the attack button right, you can also unleash a special attack. Vision and Iron Man will launch a diagonal beam downward while Hawkeye and Captain America will do a diving kick instead, the lasers great for hitting foes at tricky angles while the kick is good for helping you maneuver around.
These attacks aren’t too spectacular, and besides being able to throw items you find such as rocks, tin cans, barrels, and even one of the boss’s land mines, these are the extent of your fighting options. However, they fit very well into the game’s beat ’em up format. While there will be some expected basic baddies, you’ll start encountering foes that have their own tricks to turn the tides. Enemies with extending arms to grab and restrain you, gunmen that fire back if you try to stand apart too much, and some shield users that might force out your dash attack to break past their barriers spice up the short bouts with the common baddies, but the villainous bosses are where the action really shows a strong understanding of balancing your power compared to the foes you face.
Captain American and the Avengers has a good deal of boss fights across its five major stages, and these are where you’ll come to appreciate the way the combat is designed most. Even in your first fight with Klaw and the Living Laser the two bosses team up to discourage you from just rushing in and whaling away with regular attacks since the one you’re not hitting will likely shoot you in the back. Finding your moment when they try to attack separately, hitting them as they reposition, or making good use of your aerial special moves will let you wear them down safely, but that doesn’t mean later fights will hold back in giving you tough and swift opponents. Whirlwind (in his odd but fun green armor with a conical helmet) will become briefly untouchable as he flies around and tries to direct his tornado tackles directly at you. Mandarin (in his short lived blue samurai armor) drifts around the arena speedily as clones try to harass and distract you. Crossbones serves as an effective penultimate boss as his arena quickly gets filled with moving landmines as he fires at you as you try and find safe ground. Not every boss is particularly special because their abundance does lead to a few less exciting designs. Juggernaut for example is more memorable for his weirdly small body and cyclopean helmet rather than his roll-based fighting style, and the Wizard has an odd focus on up close combat for a man known for his tricky gadgetry. Still, many of the boss fights are rather quickly completed so either you won’t lose too many credits to them if they are tough or you can swiftly move onto more interesting action if they are a bit simple.
As for why so many villains are attacking at once, Captain American and the Avengers sees the Red Skull aiming to either conquer or destroy the world, the voiced English dialogue even having some inexplicable errors and inconsistencies. The heroes will tell Whirlwind he cannot escape only for him to confusingly fire back “You will be the ones escaping!” before the fight starts, and when they ask Ultron where the Red Skull’s laser weapon is, his response is “Ask the police.”. It feels more like a dash of delightful corniness though since the plot is a pretty bog standard reason for heroes and villains to fight otherwise, and the vocal deliveries can make something as simple as Red Skull laughing or a character calling out that they can’t move rather memorable. Even the Red Skull’s plan sounds a bit weird at first thanks to the odd writing, Red Skull first paying the villains considerably to join him and then brainwashing them anyway to serve.
Just as often as you’re fighting villains on land though, you’ll find the four heroes taking to the skies or even underwater in shooting sections. Whether they’re flying with their own powers, hopping aboard hoverbikes, or using advanced diving equipment, you’ll have freedom to move around the scrolling screen as enemies appear, each character able to fire shots as quickly as you can mash the attack button. Again there can be some delightful strangeness even in the premise here, Captain America somehow throwing a constant stream of shields to keep up with the arrow and laser firing of his compatriots, and while these sections usually aren’t too demanding, they do have their own bosses. Whether they’re the Giant Robot that looks a great deal like the Sentinels from X-Men comics or the inexplicably invented Mech. Taco octopus machine, these sections can have foes that can put up a fight so you don’t just mash your way to victory here. They join the regular stage bosses in helping break up the gameplay too so the somewhat simple enemies never stick around long enough to grow stale. You’ll even see some cameos from other superheroes here or there just for flavor, like Quicksilver rushing in to drop a healing item when a single credit already feels just right in terms of how many hits you can handle before dying. Wasp will join you as a bit of damaging shield if you grab her power-up, but other characters like Namor also drop in mostly just as background detail. Much like the excitement in figuring out which Marvel villain will appear next, having a hero drop in even for something as small as Wonder Man dropping off hover bikes ends up quite a treat for someone with a wide knowledge of the Marvel universe.
THE VERDICT: Captain American and the Avengers can feel like a delightful parade of familiar and obscure Marvel characters, but the abundance of boss fights also suits its beat ’em up action well. Your simple fighting options gel well with the kinds of attacks and strategies bosses rely on, the player able to hang back and avoid unnecessary damage or learn to identify opportunities well so damage they receive doesn’t feel cheap. The rapid pace sees you facing many unique bosses between short stretches of basic baddie battles and the shooting segments with their own decent twists on fair but challenging foes. The balance between the power of heroes and villains is what makes this superhero brawler a quick and enjoyable romp through classic Marvel iconography.
And so, I give Captain American and the Avengers for arcade machines…
A GOOD rating. Captain American and the Avengers found a really smart way to make its projectile attacks work in its brawler formula. You can’t overly rely on them but they even the playing field at many parts, letting you pester foes that may be dangerous to approach during one of their attacks but also leaving you vulnerable if you use the lasers, shields, or arrows at the wrong times. Some fights like Crossbones and Whirlwind shake things up well so you can’t rely too much on things like Iron Man’s midair beam, and while the shooting sections are much easier because hammering fire is remarkably effective, the bosses there also work for keeping you moving rather than blindly relying on button mashing. There is definitely a bit of charm found in the old school look to many of the villains even if some like Juggernaut come out oddly inaccurate in an otherwise faithful bunch, and the simple story doesn’t suffer from the confusing writing and instead keep this the kind of light-hearted experience where you’re not surprised to see how strange some foes will get. The four main characters maybe could have been differentiated more, there still value in trying out more than just one, but the half hour adventure would be more interesting to return to if every hero felt truly unique in some way. It might be best the game didn’t diverge their design too much so that the boss fights don’t lose their edge, but the shooting sections at least feel like more attack options could have allowed for the enemies to put up a fight closer to what the ground ones manage. The uncomplicated controls do mean new players can quickly understand their options and better discover how to handle the many bosses, this energetic brawler not feeling as old school as some of the costumes its characters wear.
The console ports of Captain American and the Avengers muddied some of the game’s appeal with awkward controls and issues actually hitting your foes, but in the arcade, the superhero action shines in spite of and partially because of its simplicity. Your heroes can do more than punch but aren’t so capable they cream everything they face, and the punchiness of the fighting makes landing blows satisfying even before you get the extra touches of comic book sound effect words popping up for emphasis. With the extra emphasis on cramming in as many familiar heroes and villains as they could into the experience, Captain American and the Avengers also feels like a delightful beat ’em up tour of a side of Marvel that wouldn’t really come into focus again until the Marvel Cinematic Universe raised the station of the Avengers. There are certainly better and more technical brawlers that came after it and even star superheroes, but Captain American and the Avengers captures the fun of playing as powerful superhumans going up against similarly strong supervillains quite well for its time.